On Friday July 21, the Town of Caroga will conduct a special training program for children who are enrolled in the Town’s Summer Youth Program. It is anticipated that approximately 50 children grades 1-6 will participate.
The Adirondack Watershed Institute, the Town of Caroga’s Invasive Species Removal and Prevention Program, and the Canada Lakes Conservation Association are working together to provide training. This is the first time this unique program has been offered in the southern Adirondacks.
How Amazing Music Has Come To A Beautiful Location
In July and August, music and more will fill the Town of Caroga and the surrounding communities. The Caroga Lake Music Festival features multiple styles of music performed by excellent musicians from all over the country. The quality and quantity of performers and performances is well beyond what one might expect to find in a small town of 500 souls in the southern Adirondacks.
The festival presents a variety of musicians from nationally recognized orchestras, chamber ensembles, and bands who regularly perform on reputed stations and shows including NPR, PBS, Late Night with Stephen Colbert, Saturday Night Live, Ellen, Steve Harvey show and more. GRAMMY award winners include artists from multiple genres, including Sierra Hull, Geoff Saunders, Sandeep Das, Mike Block, and Cara Samantha.
The Adirondack Forest Preserve is celebrated as one of the world’s best-protected wilderness reserves, but of course this is New York State, not the distant, untrodden surface of Venus; with precious few exceptions all of the lands that are now “forever wild” were once privately owned, and many parcels were developed to one degree or another before the state acquired them for the Forest Preserve. If you’ve enjoyed any of the Adirondack Park’s “blockbuster” purchases over the last quarter-century, such as Little Tupper Lake, Round Lake, the Essex Chain of Lakes, Boreas Ponds, or Madawaska Flow, you have explored land that was once populated by dozens of modest hunting camps.
I was an early visitor at all of these properties, exploring their secrets while the ink was still wet on the deeds. In 1998, just weeks after the “William C. Whitney Area” opened to the public, I found a small cabin on the north shore of Little Tupper Lake that even DEC staff didn’t seem to know about. At Madawaska Flow in 2004 and Round Lake in 2006, I ventured into recently abandoned cabins that stood on expired leases, quietly awaiting their demolition. These structures reminded me that what I had come to explore as “wilderness” had been perceived and used as something slightly different a few years earlier.
Because of these experiences, as well as my interest in Adirondack history, I have never been deluded into thinking our wilderness is a people-less place; it may be the natural landscape that attracts me and fills my daydreams, but I am also familiar with (and fascinated by) the human story that haunts the Forest Preserve.
Kane Mountain, located in the Shaker Mountain Wild Forest can be ascended via two routes which can be used to make a loop hike. A fire tower is located on the 2,060-foot summit.
Kane Mountain East Trail is the most direct route, ascending 560 feet and 0.8 mile from the Kane Mountain Trailhead Parking Area to the summit. » Continue Reading.
The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation has announced it will close 51 of 161 campsites at the Caroga Lake Campground in order to replace a wastewater system. The campground is located off Route 29A on East Caroga Lake in the Town of Caroga, Fulton County, just inside the Blue Line of the Adirondack Park.
An announcement from DEC said campers with reservations to these campsites will be given a full refund and offered an opportunity to reserve another available campsite at Caroga Lake Campground or reserve a campsite at another nearby DEC campground. » Continue Reading.
The Fourth Annual Southern Adirondack Rockclimbers Festival begins this Friday, September 9th, at 3pm. This year, participants will rendezvous at the property of photographer Gary Dean, located just north of the intersection of routes 10 and 10A, in the town of Caroga Lake.
This year’s climbing venues include Good Luck, Lost T, and Lost Hunter’s cliffs, as well as several newly-discovered crags. Additionally, location manager Justin Sanford will run a bouldering competition featuring the well-known boulders at Nine-Cornered Lake. SRCFC will again provide a dinner for participants Saturday night. Door prizes and giveaways from Mad Rock, Clif, National Geographic, and many more will be handed out during the event. Begun in 2008, the Festival provides climbers from all over the northeast an opportunity to explore lesser-known crags outside of the Adirondack’s well-known cliffs, and a chance for local climbers to meet, compare notes, and share the latest developments with each other. Past events have been held at Shanty Cliff, Crane Mountain, and the southeast shore of Lake George.
The Rockclimbers Festival is free to all. Free camping sites are available. Overflow camping is available close to many of the climbing areas. No training or guiding is supplied during this event; participants should understand the skills required in climbing, the risks involved, and the methods for dealing with them. Visit the festival website for more information.
Photos: Above, Lost T cliff; Below, A boulderer at Nine Cornered Lake (photos by Justin Sanford).
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